55 ways to have fun with google

55 Ways to Have Fun With Google
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22. Googlepark
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55 Ways to Have Fun With Google
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22. Googlepark
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55 Ways to Have Fun With Google
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22. Googlepark
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55 Ways to Have Fun With Google
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22. Googlepark
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55 Ways to Have Fun With Google
23. Googleshare
Googleshare (also called mindshare) is one of the most powerful
approaches to have fun with mining the web for data, and answers.
Here’s how it works; when you enter a single term or phrase into
Google, you get a certain page count. For example, you enter “Rolling
Stones” as phrase search and Google tells you there are about
10,500,000 pages on the web containing this phrase. Now you combine
this query with one of the Rolling Stones singers, searching for:
“Rolling Stones” “Mick Jagger”
This results in 1,470,000 pages. The percentage the second value has in
relation to the first is its “googleshare.” So Mick Jagger has a
googleshare of 14% with the Rolling Stones. This is very high; Keith
Richards only has a Rolling Stones googleshare of 5%. This makes
Mick Jagger the most popular in the band. Peter Smith, on the other
hand, has a googleshare of only 0.006% with the Stones – because he’s
not a band member, of course.
Here are some more googleshare examples:
Full House:
Ashley Olsen
John Stamos
Bob Saget
Mary-Kate Olsen
Dave Coulier
Jodie Sweetin
1.46%
1.07%
1.04%
0.97%
0.58%
0.56%
Tom Cruise:
Nicole Kidman
Katie Holmes
Penelope Cruz
Mimi Rogers
20.80%
16.34%
7.51%
0.57%
Harrison Ford:
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23. Googleshare
Star Wars
Firewall
Blade Runner
Raiders of the Lost Ark
The Fugitive
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
American Graffiti
Six Days Seven Nights
Regarding Henry
The Mosquito Coast
14.97%
8.98%
4.06%
2.78%
2.12%
1.43%
1.13%
0.9%
0.55%
0.5%
We can also find the googleshare for a specific year and an event. For
example, we can determine the googleshare for 1950 and “Disco,”
1951 and “Disco,” and so on for all years until 2005. We then
normalize this data by taking into account that some years are
represented more often on the web (for example, the year 1960 on its
own appears more often than the year 1961). What we get as result is a
peak year which shows us when this fad or person was on the height
of its fame, or when an event happened. I’ve created a tool called
“Centuryshare” as part of the FindForward search engine
(findforward.com/?t=century) which helps visualize this data:
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55 Ways to Have Fun With Google
As you can see, you can determine the googleshare for anything and
everything, really. Douwe Osinga, who currently works at Google
Zürich, created a project called “Land Geist” (see www.55fun.com/23.2 –
back then Douwe actually used search engine AllTheWeb, not Google,
to compile his data). Land Geist features different maps for different
words, like “holiday,” “rice” or “poverty.” The most popular countries
for holidays according to Land Geist are Mauritius, Cyprus and Spain.
Determining the “countryshare” for “Islam,” on the other hand,
returns Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran as top contenders.
The “countryshare” map for the term “holiday” (the darker the country, the higher
its googleshare). Courtesy of Douwe Osinga.
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24. The Shortest Google Search (and the One Returning the Most Results)
24. The Shortest Google Search (and the One
Returning the Most Results)
Can you find the shortest Google search that doesn’t return any
results, using only the letters a-z (no Umlaute or accented characters)
and the numbers 0-9? How many letters will you need? For example,
you can enter “d8” into Google. It’s only two letters, so it’s very short.
But whoops – it returns nearly 5 million pages! Or search for
“njd2we9e2.” That returns no results... but it’s also 9 letters long. Can
you make a short search with no pages at all found on the web?
Answer:
_______________________
Page count:
_______________________
Also, can you find the Google search returning the most results?
You are allowed to use any character at all (not only letters from a-z
and numbers). Let’s say you search for Beatles. More than 16 million
results. Not bad already. Or search for USA. That’ll be over 1 billion
result pages, as Google tells you. That’s better, but you can go even
higher than that. Which single search query finds the most result
pages?
Answer:
_______________________
Page count:
_______________________
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55 Ways to Have Fun With Google
25. Google Rotated and Mini Google
“Mini Me, if I ever lost you I don’t know what I would do. (pauses)
I would probably move on, get another clone but there would be a 15
minute period there where I would just be inconsolable.”
– Dr. Evil, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Both of the following fun ways to browse Google need the Internet
Explorer browser, so feel free to skip this chapter if you’re using
Firefox or any browser other than Internet Explorer.
Google Rotated (blog.outer-court.com/rotated/) shows you the normal,
actual Google (with all of its functionalities)... except that everything’s
rotated 180°. Including the Google homepage, the search results, and
even the web pages you click on in the results. When people visit
Google Rotated they’re usually either trying to adjust their monitor, or
bend their neck leftwards.
Google Rotated... it’s another way to look at search.
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25. Google Rotated and Mini Google
Mini Google (blog.outer-court.com/mini.html), on the other hand, doesn’t
make you bend your neck. Then again, it may make you move your
face really, really close to the screen... ‘cause it’s tiny. About the size of
your thumbnail. Good luck searching for something with Mini Google,
and good luck hitting on a search result page – as a bonus, if you
managed to do that the page you clicked on will be mini too!
Google Mini. Small, but fun!
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55 Ways to Have Fun With Google
26. The Google Quiz: How Much Do You
Know About Google?
Are you a Google expert? Do you know everything about the company
and its services? Or are you still new to the topic, and you only used
their search engine for a couple of times so far? Well, you can put your
knowledge to the test in this quiz which will answer the question: How
much do you know about Google? Get a pencil and cross the single
right answer for every question, and calculate your score afterwards.
1. Google Inc. was founded in ...
a) 1996
b) 1998
c) 2000
2. Google Inc. was founded by ...
a) Sergey Page and Larry Brin
b) Eric Schmidt and Larry Page
c) Larry Page and Sergey Brin
3. Which search operator does Google enable by default?
a) The AND operator
b) The OR operator
c) The NOT operator
4. Google once used Yahoo’s search result to feed its engine.
True?
a) Yes, from 1998-2000.
b) No, it was the other way round – Yahoo used Google once.
c) No, Google and Yahoo never had any search relationship.
5. Google Analytics is a service to ...
a) Check if your web pages validate
b) Check how many people visit your web pages
c) Check your Google PageRank
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26. The Google Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Google?
6. In 2006, Eric Schmidt is Google’s ...
a) Vice President Engineering
b) Eric left the company in 2004 to pursue his hobbies
c) Chief Executive Officer
7. What was the name of the search engine the Google founders
developed before Google?
a) PageRanker
b) BackRub
c) Gogol
8. What is the algorithm behind Google’s PageRank?
a) The more pages link to you (and the higher their PageRank), the
higher your page’s PageRank
b) You get 1 PageRank point for every web page you own
c) The algorithm behind PageRank is kept secret, similar to the CocaCola formula
9. Why do some sites get “banned” from the Google index?
a) They tried methods to get their pages ranked better which Google
considers spam
b) They have content which is illegal in this state/ country
c) Both a) and b) are true.
10. At which university did the Google founders meet?
a) Oxford University
b) MIT
c) Stanford University
11. What is the “Googleplex”?
a) It’s where Google employees work
b) It’s a solar system which shares only the name with Google.com
c) It’s the server farm Google built up to deliver search results to you
12. Which words are printed on the Froogle homepage?
a) Search for any product you want (or discover new ones).
b) froo·gle (fru’gal) n. Smart shopping through Google.
c) Froogle. Just shopping.
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55 Ways to Have Fun With Google
13. Around how many hits do you get for the word “Hello” (in
2006)?
a) 420,000 pages
b) 420,000,000 pages
c) 42,000,000,000 pages
14. If you want to find a place to grab a pizza, you go to ...
a) Google Food
b) Google Places
c) Google Local
15. At the Association of National Advertisers annual conference
in October 2005, who said Google will take 300 years to fulfill its
mission to index the world’s data?
a) Eric Schmidt
b) Larry Page
c) Marissa Mayer
16. What colors do the letters of the Google logo have, from left to
right?
a) Red – Blue – Green – Yellow – Green
b) Blue – Red – Yellow – Blue – Green – Red
c) Blue – Yellow – Purple – Yellow – Red – Blue
How well did you do?
Calculate your points by adding 10 points for each question you answered like
the following: 1 - b, 2 - c, 3 - a, 4 - b, 5 - b, 6 - c, 7 - b, 8 - a, 9 - c, 10 - c, 11 - a, 12 a, 13 - b, 14 - c, 15 - a, 16 – b.
0–50 points: Though you have a mild interest in Google, you’re new to the
topic. Maybe you prefer other search engines, or you’re not using the web for a
lot of tasks. You have yet to learn how to become a power searcher, but you’re
on your way.
60–110 points: You already understand more than just the basics of how
Google works. Using your search power, you can locate almost anything you
want. You are likely making good use of Gmail, Google News, and other
Google services.
120–160 points: Consider yourself a Google guru. In fact, with your knowledge
you could write a book like this. Chances are you are reading a lot of news
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26. The Google Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Google?
articles on Google, and you know the ins and outs of its services. You probably
use Google on a daily basis for many years now.
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55 Ways to Have Fun With Google
27. Recreate Google From Memory
Before you flip to the next pages, try something: take pen and paper,
and recreate Google from memory. Try to sketch every link and other
detail from the Google homepage just as you remember it. When
you’re done, take a look at what some other people created faced with
the same task – and then finally take a look at the actual Google
homepage!
Which parts of the Google homepage did you get right, and which did
you get wrong – and can you imagine why?
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27. Recreate Google From Memory
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